Will Get in Your Head

Every Saturday night among the row of boutiques, artisan markets and restaurants that line South Congress Avenue, a makeshift collection of performers entertains the foot traffic. One of the star attractions is 19-year-old Sofia Dyer, aka The Girl Who Knows. Costumed in a turban, blindfold and Victorian-inspired dress, she reads minds near Tesoros Trading Company, while her dad, Jake, serves as the barker, drawing in the crowds and collecting the tips. When Dyer isn’t deciphering people’s thoughts, she’s majoring in the Plan II program at UT and studying Russian. You could say this young lady has a lot on her mind.

How does your mind-reading act work? I start out by guessing cards [held up by audience members] and then transition into objects. Everyone focuses together. I’ll start seeing some kind of image; it can be a color, a word or shapes that I put together. Sometimes I’ll be able to identify close relationships between other people.

Do people ever take mind reading too far? Some people have asked very serious questions about their dead relatives or their unborn child. I think having a mentalist, someone who possibly has contact with the other side, can give them a sense of hope. But I want to be clear, that’s not what the show is about. It’s all for fun.

Does anyone else in your family read minds? As far as I know, I’m the only one who has this ability. I guess you could say I’ve developed it over time.

I bet you were an interesting kid growing up. I had a very strange childhood. I did seances when I was 7 or 8 years old. We would throw little parties for friends, and I would conjure the spirits—it was extremely terrifying.

How does this skill tie into your daily life? I’m very shy at school, and I guess I’m also quiet as The Girl Who Knows. But you have to throw yourself out there, put on a turban and go read minds. It’s exhilarating every time, and it’s fun to translate that sense of excitement to the audience.

I learned decades ago that being Black in the capital city is a singularly exhausting experience. As protests course through my hometown, it’s time that white people begin to feel the fierce urgency of now.